How to Change Your Surface’s Wi-Fi Connection’s Settings

Windows 8 offers many handy ways to change or keep track of your Wi-Fi network’s settings on your Surface. However, it’s difficult to find the right switches until you follow these steps:

Summon the Charms bar by sliding your finger in from your Surface’s right edge, and then tap the Settings icon.

Tap your wireless network icon.

When the Network pane appears, listing your currently connected wireless network, hold your finger on the network’s name until a square appears; lift your finger.

The equivalent of right-clicking with a mouse, that action brings up a pop-up box with these options:

Show Estimated Data Usage: Designed for people with metered cellular data plans, this toggle switch displays how many megabytes of data have flowed through your connection. To return your counter to zero, tap the Reset button.

Set as Metered Connection: Choose this if you’re on a tiered data plan, which limits the amount of data you can upload or download. Enter your limit in this area, and Windows warns you when you’re about to surpass your limit. Plus, Windows automatically switches to Wi-Fi when possible, saving you money.

Forget This Network: If you’ve accidentally logged onto an unwanted network, choose this to forget the network. That stops Windows from logging on again automatically when you’re within range. (It also lets you start over if you think you’ve somehow botched the settings.)

Turn Sharing On or Off: This option lets you toggle sharing, a handy way to either stop or start sharing your files and devices with other people on the network.